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Friday, February 2, 2018

Texas State Student Body President Semi-Apologizes for Racist Instagram Posts

A group of Texas State University students are calling for the impeachment of student body president Connor Clegg after he posted racially insensitive photos to his Instagram.

Screenshots from Clegg's personal Instagram account showed his selfies with people appearing of Asian descent in the background, accompanied by hashtags such as "#kimjongil "#pearlharborwasbad" and "#selfiebombrevenge." Although it appears that Clegg has since deactivated his account, select screenshots of his photos are still up on a fellow Texas State student's Facebook page. Texas State student Rudy Martinez (who wrote a controversial opinion column in the campus newspaper, The University Star, calling for the "death of whiteness" back in November) brought Clegg's behavior to light on Thursday by posting screenshots of Clegg's instagram photos on his personal Facebook page.

The two have history. Clegg apparently threatened the student newspaper's freedom of speech following Martinez's "whiteness" column, saying it didn't reflect the university's core values.Soon after, the university's Pan African Action Committee filed a petition for Clegg's impeachment for his evisceration of the Star. Clegg shared his intent to make sure the paper's opinion editor May Olvera resigned, which she did a month after the column (much to his delight).

Texas State students and alumni shared their outrage over the most recent revelation on Facebook, sharing personal encounters they've had with Clegg and saying he should resign. But it appears that Clegg has no plans to step down. On Thursday evening, Clegg posted a video to his Facebook, apologizing to the Texas State student body. He admitted that his posts were immature and ignorant, but said his intentions were never to be hurtful.

"My heart harbors no hate for anyone without distinction to color," Clegg said, as someone off-camera can be heard shuffling cue cards.
Spoken like a true politician.